• PocketGamer’s Jon Jordan on why the Facebook IPO is good for mobile games [PocketGamer]
• Crowdstar partners with Tencent and Gamevil to expand into Asia [Inside Mobile Apps]
• Learn exactly how many daily downloads you need to be in the App Store top 25 free games in the US (spoiler: it’s 25,300) [TechCrunch]
• DeNA releases Rage of Bahamut on iOS, taking on GREE’s Zombie Jombie [Inside Mobile Apps]
• Is poor user tracking holding back mobile advertising as an industry? [PocketGamer]

We put out the call for developers and designers far and wide to join us in the first of what will be many mobile gaming hackathons.

We kicked it off with a party on Friday, where participants got to meet each other, teamed up and networked with other professionals of the mobile industry. The meetup was seasoned with good beer and wine and Justin’s music, our DJ-in-Residence.

Two days, 80 Red Bull, and 52 Chinese takeout containers lat; our seven teams submitted some awesome and innovative games. The judges sized up the mobile games based on innovation, fun, graphics, gameplay and vitality to decide who deserved the first and second prizes.

Caption: The Hackathon Judges, Christoph Birkhold (Head of Studio at Natural Motion) , Vikram Lakwara (Business Analyst SKT Ventures) and Sean Fannan (our co-founder and CTO).

The winning team sliced and typed their way to victory with Typing with Strangers: Ninjas vs. Dragons. The game uses wifi and bluetooth networks to connect players in the same vicinity to battle against fireball-hawking dragons. The weapon: your two thumbs. Race to type the words underneath the dragon to nunchuk them back to the reptilian cave they crawled out of. Their hard work was rewarded with $2000 cash, 1 month of free office at StartupHQ, free advertising on Natural Motion’s games and 1 year of free hosting on Rackspace.

Second place was secured by Friendly Feud, a quiz show themed app that tests your knowledge of your Facebook friends. Bret Redinger and Adam Mork worked around the clock Friday and Saturday to polish the game before Mother’s Day brunch. The duo say they hope to release the app soon, presumably so they can play it on the new iPads they took home along with the silver medal.



Rahil Patel’s multiplayer game for iPad, Doodletangle, landed him $100 giftcard to iTunes. In the game, users must move their fingers through a moving maze, without hitting the walls or getting tangled by one of the other 10 limbs on the board. It’s like Hole in the Wall for iPad!

The Qualcomm and Twilio awards went to Rauhmel Fox, who began work on a location based app which used Qualcomm’s geo-fencing API. Look out for more updates on SpideyZin as he continues production over the summer.

Rounding out the submissions:
Bar Back Joe by Angelo Hizon, William Ogle, Phil Wee and Angie Chang: Mix and send drinks to friends while trying to earn tips and become the best mixologist in the city.

ZombiPit by Amir Szekely and Will Wright: Mass murdering zombies that are stuck in a pit, do you really need to know anymore to be excited for this release?!

Beta Breakers by the Chartboost Business Team: Sharkles needs to make it as far as he can in this Bay to Breakers themed side scroller. Beware of drunk jelly fish and sea horse cops handing out citations! (Believe us when we tell you the marketing and monetization plans are really the shining stars of this app)

Caption: Congratulations Eran Davidov, Elliott Lee, Kim Hsiao and Andy Jiang for winning the Hackathon! And thanks to the judges and sponsors for making our first Hackathon possible!

Happy May Day! It is getting warmer and San Francisco’s calendar is filling up with outdoor activities (Bay to Breakers, street fairs…) and so is the mobile gaming space! We have an intense calendar for this month and we want to share it with you!

We’re starting with Mobile Gaming USA in San Francisco on May 9-10, which will focus on new revenue generation models for mobile games. Don’t miss our CEO’s panel the first day at 3:45pm. Contact us if you still want a $500 discount code!

The following weekend (May 12-13), the Startup HQ is going to be packed with game developers coming from far and wide to our first Game Development Hackathon! Don’t miss this opportunity to team up, build a cool game, and have a lot of fun!

Chartboost is also helping many European developers establish Direct Deals among each other. This is why we’re happy to host our first Direct Deals Meetup in Helsinki on May 21st at 6pm. If you’re around, come join Chartboost and meet your next (or maybe your current) DD partner!

We’re also participating at Casual Connect Asia (Singapore) and the Social Gaming Summit in Berlin. We look forward to meeting new game developers in both cities! Feel free to ping us if you’re going to be in any of the conferences.We’d love to chat with you!

Whew! Not bad, right? We’re excited to be part of such a vibrant industry! :)

The Chartboost family is growing very fast! That’s why in January, we got a larger space in the 185 Clara st building.

But the office needed a restyling and the entire team got to work! We painted the walls with some Chartboost green and we had our friend Ferran spruce up the place with some original artwork.

When it’s cold outside and cozy in, you can hang your coat on a snazzy smartphone hanger. Or, as Cori likes to say - drunk octopus app wants to fight you for your coat.

The business team keeps a rotating wall of our favorite creatives. The frames aren’t quite what you see on a device, but they make the office seem more homey.

The meeting rooms got original scenes with Android and iPhone cartoons. If you’re dropping by, feel free to request to meet in the Love Room or the War Room - just remember there’s no fighting in the war room!

After adorning the walls with your app icons, the place really feels like Chartboost HQ.

Thanks Ferran for the great work!

At Chartboost, we make it a priority to bring you the best, most transparent analytics possible. We’ve always offered a beautiful dashboard for those of you who want to see your data on the web, and an API for those of you who want to import that data into your internal business intelligence systems. At the beginning of March, we switched to Vertica to bring you faster and more scalable data. Every day we’re coming up with new and innovative ways to get you the data you need when you need it!

Today, Chartboost is joining forces with analytics provider Kontagent and ad networks MdotM and Playhaven to help create a standard and open API for user acquisition reporting. We’re calling our coalition the Mobile Acquisition Transparency Alliance, or MATA. Our goal is to make the process of working with APIs as seamless and easy as possible for mobile developers.

Read More

We’re absolutely ecstatic to announce our partnership with Pocket Gems to debut the Pocket Gems Kiosk. Developers looking to publish ads for the mega-successful mobile gaming company can now visit the Kiosk directly from the Pocket Gems website and apply to be a publisher.

Launched last year, our Direct Deals Marketplace allows us to connect publishers and advertisers directly, rather than going through a network that sometimes takes a 50% (or higher!) cut. The next step in its evolution is the Kiosk, which allows publishers to approach advertising partners directly- even if they aren’t yet a part of Chartboost’s Direct Deal Marketplace.

Read More

Are you coming to GDC next week? In addition to all of the awesome panels and parties, be sure to check out the best that San Francisco has to offer. Here are a few of our staff’s favorite spots.

Cori: Head to the Ferry Building for an afternoon picnic. I like to get a Salumi Cone from Boccalone, a semi-soft sheep’s milk cheese from Cowgirl Creamery, and a warm baguette from ACME bread company.

Sean: Escape from downtown for the best dim sum in the city at Shanghai Dumpling King. I always order the pea sprouts, Shanghai noodles, and Shanghai dumplings. Be warned, it’s cash only.

Mark: Try the artisan cocktails at a classic saloon or speakeasy, then take an Uber cab back to your hotel.

Read More

1 Walk from Plaza Catalunya through Las Ramblas, an amazing street full of life. You will see El Mercat De la Boqueria on your right. Enter and enjoy the colors. Continue walking down until you reach the Cristobal Colon statue. 

2 Go back uphill and to your right to get lost in the streets of El Barri Gotic. The center of the old town still retains a maze-like street plan, with many small streets opening out into squares. You can visit The Cathedral and the old Royal Palace.

3 Continue walking to El Born, a bohemian neighborhood where you’ll find the most beautiful and hidden fashion stores. Have a glass of Rioja in one the wine bars in your way. Enter Santa Maria del Mar and finish your walk with a delicious tapas lunch at the Mercat de Santa Caterina.

Read More

Chartboost is travelling throughout Europe these days.

We had a great time at the Mobile Game Forum 2012 in London last week, where we met with a bunch of amazing game developers and discussed innovative ways to increase their distribution power.

Read More